A 28-year-old Indian student, Chandrashekar Pole, working at a gas station in Dallas, Texas, was shot dead on Friday night by an unidentified gunman just a month after another Indian man, Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah, was beheaded in the same city.
Chandrashekar Pole was from Hyderabad and had been in the US for higher studies since 2023.(X/ Harish Rao)
Chandrashekar Pole was from Hyderabad and had been in the US for higher studies since 2023 after completing his bachelor’s degree in dental surgery in India. He recently finished his US master’s and was working part-time at the gas station while looking for a full-time placement.
The student’s family has sought the government’s help in bringing back their son’s body from the US. BRS MLA and former Telangana minister T Harish Rao echoed the family’s demand.
Rao and another BRS MLA, Sudhir Reddy, visited the student’s home in Hyderabad on Saturday and met his family.
“The pain that the parents are going through, knowing that their son, who they believed would reach great heights, is no more, is heart-wrenching to witness. We, on behalf of BRS, demand that the state government take initiative and make efforts to bring Chandra Shekhar’s mortal remains to his hometown as quickly as possible,” Rao said in a social media post.
Crimes against Indians in Dallas
Last month, Chandra Mouli “Bob” Nagamallaiah, a 50-year-old Indian-origin motel manager, was beheaded in front of his wife and son in Dallas, Texas, following a dispute over a washing machine.
The suspect, identified as Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, a co-worker with a criminal record, has been arrested and charged with capital murder. The incident took place early last month at the Downtown Suites motel in Dallas.
According to Dallas police, the attack followed a quarrel over a broken washing machine. Nagamallaiah asked a colleague to translate his instructions, which angered the suspect, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, news agency PTI reported.
Surveillance footage showed Cobos-Martinez fetching a machete, chasing the victim, and launching a frenzied assault as Nagamallaiah’s wife and son tried to stop him.